Normally I hate PETA, but...

June 24, 2009

They have some awesomely cool (if not extremely silly) stuff to push their campaigns with. They have this thing called "Save the Sea Kittens", which is a campaign to stop the Department of Wildlife from promoting/allowing fishing. Screw PETA, right? Well, wait before you say that -- they have something really cute called "Create your own Sea Kitten" you might want to check out first. You can see mine below.

I in no way support this cause, but check this guy out. He's awesome. Go make your own, and use it to demote the cause instead ;-)

Tags: Sea Kittens, Peta

Alright Folks, New MMS Hack!

June 22, 2009

If you like this article and want to see more, follow me on twitter.

If you'd like to see AT&T get off their collective asses and DO something about official MMS for iPhone, then sign this twitition.

Alright, after several days of collecting data from users who have had their MMS disconnected -- I've come to a conclusion. AT&T is now auto-optouting whenever they detect an AT&T IMEI on an account. This is totally lame, but theoretically reversible. However it requires that you have a GSM/AT&T phone other than an iPhone, and that you are authorized to call AT&T and make changes on your account.

Before reading the walkthrough, know that I offer support through email (click the "my email" link at the top of the page), and that I am taking donations through paypal. Donations will be used for getting an iPhone 3GS to test and maintain these hacks on, as well as keeping this server up and generally helping me pay bills. For support emails, please put "iPhone Hack Support" in the subject line or you may get filtered out.

Now, on to the walkthrough.

The first few steps are the same as before, we must enable IPCC updates in iTunes 8.2. Here are the instructions from my previous walkthrough, nothing has changed except the IPCC file you download.

Mac OS X:
  1. Close iTunes if it is open
  2. Start Terminal (Applications > Utilities)
  3. Run the following command: defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE
Windows 2000/XP/Vista (32-bit):
  1. Go to Start -> Run (
  2. type in "command" and hit enter
  3. Type/copy+paste this into the command console that comes up: "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe" /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1
  4. Hit enter
Windows XP/Vista (64-bit):
  1. Go to Start -> Run (
  2. type in "command" and hit enter
  3. Type/copy+paste this into the command console that comes up: "C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.exe" /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1
  4. Hit enter
There, now you can update IPCC files as you were able to in 8.1. Now, let's go get us some AT&T Carrier Bundle goodness. You can download the modified bundle right here (right-click and "Save as" or whatever your browser's equivalent is). To install this, follow these steps.
  1. Download the file to some location on your computer
  2. Plug in your iPhone
  3. Start iTunes
  4. Click on your iPhone in the device listing in iTunes
  5. Alt-Click the "Update" button (Shift-click in Windows)
  6. Browse to where you saved the IPCC you downloaded
  7. Select this file and click Choose (or OK on windows i think)
  8. Success!
You now have modified carrier bundle. With this, you can do tethering!

Now we have to do some very fancy stuff for MMS. The first part, the sim-swap technique, is required for ALL phone plans -- including family plans now that AT&T has upped the ante. 
  1. Remove the sim cards from both the iPhone and your non-Apple phone
  2. Place the iPhone sim card into the non-Apple phone
  3. Power on the new phone
  4. Make a phone call or two (your voicemail works)
  5. Log in to your myWireless account at wireless.att.com
  6. It should now say that your device is whatever you put your SIM into. If it doesn't, repeat step 4 a few times. If it still doesn't, manually change your device to whatever you put your SIM into, then log out then back in to your account
  7. Go to the "Features" tab
  8. Select a "Messaging Plan", one that isn't an iPhone plan. The name of this plan will vary based on what phone you're used.
  9. Click next and go through all the legal crap
  10. You should now have MMS enabled on your account... so...
  11. DO NOT ADD AN IPHONE TEXTING PLAN BACK TO YOUR ACCOUNT! EVER! IT WILL DISABLE MMS AGAIN!
So this is where things change a bit.
  1. Find and write down the IMEI from your non-iPhone phone. The method for finding your IMEI will vary based on your phone make and model, so go google it.
  2. Try to send an MMS. It will probably fail.
  3. Call AT&T customer service.
This is where things start to get tricky. We have to get a CS agent to change your account's associated IMEI WITHOUT changing any of your features. Sometimes this is difficult. To make your life easier, I've designed a step-by-step procedure on how to accomplish this.
  1. Call 611 from the non-iPhone
  2. Tell them that you've switched phones and need to update your IMEI
  3. Give them the IMEI you wrote down
  4. Once they do this, they'll try and get you to change your Data plan. Tell them you have an sudden emergency and dont have time but you'll call back in about 20 minutes to change the plans. Hang up immediately.
  5. Wait about 5 minutes and try sending an MMS
  6. If it doesn't work, call them back and tell them you're having issues with MMS on your phone.
  7. If they try and get you to update your data/text plans, hang up and try again. You get a different CS agent every time, sooner or alter they'll fix it without trying to get you to change plans.
  8. Swap the iPhone sim card back into the iPhone
  9. Reboot the iPhone
  10. It should work, and hopefully they won't notice you have an iPhone and do the re-optout
This has worked for a few people. Hopefully it will work for you.

Enjoy!

Tags: Apple, Iphone, Mms, Tethering, At&T

See more